The power of stories: Using narrative methods in playwork research

Two academics from early childhood education, colleagues with some playwork involvement, offer insights into the potential for collaborative narrative research to generate rich and deep understandings of the value of playwork and its fascination for those who work in the field. Hazel Wright sets out the methodological framework she favours to explore meaning through biographical interviews; Paulette Luff shows how participants’ written journal entries may capture elements of practice and convey meaning through reflectivity and indicates how these can be harnessed as an element of action research supporting positive change in a work context. Their joint account is clearly set within a playwork research tradition and draws on a small-scale narrative research study with playworkers, discussing their comments within a framework of key earlier studies. Overall the analysis reinforces the view that – and demonstrates how – playwork is a distinctive practice with a very clear ethos of play for its own sake.